Weed and Pest Update

Summer and fall faded into winter in a blink of an eye. Most, if not all, weed spraying opportunities have come and passed. However, the Weed and Pest is still continuing to stay busy into the cold snowy months.

Winter months bring an abundance of statewide meetings to prepare for the coming spring. Invasive species control also forges on in the form of poisoning prairie dogs.

The first meeting of the winter was the 75th anniversary of the Wyoming Weed and Pest Council Fall Conference. This year was held in Evanston, and turned out to be a great conference.

District Supervisor Andrew Litzel was recognized for five years of service to the Wyoming Weed and Pest Council. Many topics were covered at the conference, but most noteworthy was Governor Mark Gordon attending.

The Governor gave an excellent speech highlighting weed and pest employees and activities, as well as gave an update on his invasive species initiative. This initiative formed two groups – a policy team and technical team – comprised of invasive species experts, government officials and private citizens from around the state, including representatives from the weed and pest.

The goal of the initiative is to tackle invasive species management on a large-scale/state level. This falls directly in line with the Governor’s goal to make Wyoming a national leader in invasive species management.

From this initiative, many questions will be deliberated and thought out regarding many aspects of large scale invasive species management. These questions and topics include: priority species or groups of species, management gaps in policy and technical areas, assessing current infestation levels, funding models and defining success of invasive species management, among others.

These are all very hard questions to answer, but certainly should foster positive outcomes from considering them. That the governor has gone to this much effort to recognize the threat invasive species pose to Wyoming’s rangeland is outstanding.

The following months will lead to more meetings throughout the state, including Wyoming Weed Management Association (commercial applicator training), Weed and Pest Council Office Manager Workshop and Wyoming Weed and Pest Council Spring Workshop. In addition to these, there will be local private applicator workshops held jointly by Weed and Pest Districts and University of Wyoming Extension.

Crook County will host two meetings, the first in Sundance on February 11 at 10 a.m. and the second in Hulett on March 17 at 1 p.m. There will also be workshops held in Newcastle, Gillette, Buffalo and Sheridan during the same time frames; for more specific times for these, please call our office.

In other exciting news, the district has decided to implement a prairie dog control program with district employees available to conduct poisoning on private lands. The board decided to keep our summer employee, Ben Stoddard, on full time to conduct many of these treatments.

The starting cost for application set by the board at $40 per hour per person, charged only on the job. The poison will remain cost shared at 60 percent (40 percent cost to the landowner).

The primary poison used will be Rozol, which gives a treatment window until March 15. All treatments will be mapped, and follow-up will be done by the district. If you are interested in having the district poison your prairie dogs, please call or visit our office.

Submitted by Andrew Litzel